I am tasked with writing a Winforms point-of-service app for a small company that has about 10 locations. It has a fairly simple database structure with tables for customers, invoices, transactions, stores, vehicles, etc. I'm thinking of using Azure SQL Database for the "master" database, but the app is mission critical for each location and needs to have an "occasionally connected" architecture to insure that it can run if and when an Internet connection is not available, and then sync when the connection is back.
I have researched the Microsoft Sync Framework, which seems like the best option, but all the documentation seems several years old and out of date.
Azure Data Sync looked promising, but that seems like more of an Azure Management type tool, whereas I want the sync functionality to be built into the client application.
Some of the mobile solutions sound interesting, but it seems to me that I need essentially identical SQL Server databases on the client and cloud server, and most, if not all of the tables need to stay synchronized. I'm thinking the easiest way to do this would be to use GUID IDs for each entity and either Sync Framework, or rolling my own code for synchronization.
So, I guess my questions are:
- What is the generally recommended, up-to-date approach for creating an occasionally connected Winforms app?
- Is the MS Sync Framework still relevant?
- Is my idea of having identical databases on client and server, using GUID IDs for entities, and either using MS Sync Framework, or rolling my own synchronization code plausible or insane?
Thanks.